NIGHT OF THE LIVING DREGS

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This is a fine album, live too and it's magically creates all the atmospheres and ingredients required for a live gig to be a success both on the night and on medium. There is great energy throughout but the best highlights for me are Long Slow Distance, Patchwork and Night of the Living Dregs. It was this album that hooked me onto the Dregs so if you are looking at introductions to new sounds look no further than here.

Here's an album that needs to be knocked down a few pegs. The musicianship is top notch, but it doesn't really say anything. The opening _Punk Sandwich_ is boring and uninspired, much like the Punk genre itself(yet it doesn't sound punk). _Country House Shuffle_ is ok with an mediocre drum opening from Rod Morgenstein. _The Riff Raff_ is a nice acoustic rock number better serviced on a Pat Metheny album. The only highlight here is the 6:40 _Long Slow Distance_ which can be best described as _Night Meets Light_ Part 2. The rest of the album is live and a little too country for my tastes(evern for the Dixie Dregs). Listen, I'm a huge Dixie Dregs fan...but this one was a huge bummer in my books. The real crime on this website is why the Dixie Dregs reunion album _Full Circle_ from 1994 has very few ratings. Now, that's a 4 to 5 star album!

When I first learned of the Dixie Dregs, and bought all of their albums, this was my least favorite. Now that I have matured, I like it at least as much as most of their other albums, maybe more than all but "What If". The engineering on this, even the original Polydor CD version is amazing. All the instruments sound crystal clear.

The album is set up in two halves. The first half is four studio recordings, and the second is four live tracks. The studio half includes "Punk Sandwich" (which isn't punk at all, thankfully), and "Country House Shuffle" (which doesn't sound very much like country to me, either), both of which became live staples for the Dregs. "The Riff Raff", primarily a violin/acoustic guitar duet, is a sort of baroque sounding tune which, to me, almost invokes Gentle Giant's "Funny Ways".

The live half is more raucous, with "Night Of The Living Dregs", a blazingly fasy version of "The Bash" and "Patchwork" (where the Dregs show they can play both kinds of music country and western).

Certainly not on par with What If, Night of the Living Dregs does however, contain more great tracks from this undoubtedly fun band. It's short, and the half live idea is a bit of a cop out, but most of the music is good enough to justify this as a solid, but far from essential, album.

The studio tracks. If you like previous Dregs, you'll like these, but the irony is that if you've got some older Dregs, these may--I repeat may--seem a bit redundant. Punk Sandwich is the Dregs in straighforward rocking mode, and of course they do this well, but not spectacularly so. Country House Shuffle is a highlight, with Rod providing some percussion craziness, followed by a nice country rocker. This is the Dregs at their best. Long Slow Distance is also quite nice, although perhaps shares some overlap with What If's Night Meets Light.

The live tracks. There's no doubt this band would be able to shine the brightest in stage. Talented, flexible, fun-loving, and clearly musical showmen, the Dregs' audience is clearly wider than progressive rockers or fusion-heads. The highlight is The Bash. It's a fairly generic country groove and progression, but at around 1 minute in, Morse gets his turn and just tears things up. Good grief, Steve Morse is fast! Just in case we needed a reminder...

Fun, solid, and a fair representation of the band's abilities. Not their best, but a good supplement to any Dregs collection.

The stereotypical caricature of a white Anglo Saxon male residing anywhere south of the Mason/Dixon line of demarcation in the United States is that of a crimson-necked, tobacco- chewing, Chevy truck-owning, gimme cap-wearing, boot-scooting, snaggle-toothed, Merle Haggard-loving Bubba who thinks Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" guitar orgy represents progressive rock at its finest. Most of the civilized world thinks we're all like that but I'll have you know it's not a fair assessment. I have it on good authority that at least 1% of us don't fit any of those close-minded descriptions and the very existence of the Florida-based band Dixie Dregs proves beyond any reasonable doubt that those of us of the more "cosmopolitan" persuasion are apt to get downright radical and adventurous with our music. So there! I'll admit that being a member of such a microscopic-sized minority tends to make one tight-lipped about sharing his listening preferences since rumors of ELP tee shirt-clad fellows being lynched in roadside pecan trees have yet to be dispelled. Better to spit and utter an occasional "yeehaw" than to be identified as a progger, in other words. Life is safer and more secure around these parts if we aural revolutionaries opt to err on the side of caution.

Having said all that silly gibberish I confess to being a blatant hypocrite because I've never heard a single note from this brave group of virtuosos until just a few weeks ago when I picked up this pre-owned LP on a whim. I certainly knew of them and that they weren't your average whisky-swillin' Tallahassee bar band but, for one strange reason or another, chose to callously ignore them for decades. My bad. If this album is representative of what they've been up to during their career then I've stupidly deprived myself of the kind of jazz rock/fusion magic that gets my adrenaline pumping every time I'm exposed to it. These guys are the real deal and they don't take a back seat to anyone in their esteemed genre. Their audacity to remain stubbornly true to themselves in defiance of the deeply-rooted regional tastes and preferences that surround them on every side alone is worthy of respect. But I suspect they don't want or need our pity because they do a remarkable job of cutting a fiery swath through the rural countryside that rivals that of Sherman's Union army as they marched ruthlessly toward Atlanta.

These boys grab you by the lapels from the get go with "Punk Sandwich," a boisterous, hard rockin' number that'd be right at home either at a prog convention or a NASCAR race in the Carolinas. It features a crisp, clean but very strong guitar beginning and a slew of stinging accents and kicks performed with astounding tightness. Solos from Steve Morse's guitar, Allen Sloan's violin and Mark Parrish's Hammond organ all sizzle and you're instantly made aware of why Mr. Morse perches permanently with the upper echelon of prog guitar gods. His regal reputation is not empty hype. When the tune ended with a big, fat synthesizer note I knew I was in for more treats to come. Rod Morgenstein's rumbling drums and percussion at the opening of "Country House Shuffle" is a nice surprise that leads directly to an intriguing, optimistic melody pattern that makes me envision the Mahavishnu Orchestra on mood-enhancing medication. The seamless cohesion of the arrangement is exceptional and Steve delivers a song-ending guitar ride that would make even the legendary Jeff Beck raise an eyebrow.

"The Riff Raff" makes it three aces in a row as this contemplative violin/classical guitar piece displays the vastness of this combo's range and acumen. It's a complex composition that doesn't take short cuts and, in the process, sounds like nothing else on the album. Makes it very hard to stick a convenient label on this band's work. I love lone piano intros and Parrish doesn't disappoint during his brief stint in the spotlight for the onset of "Long Slow Distance." While jotting down notes for this tune I tried to come up with another I could compare it to but I was stumped. These creative musicians carved out their own unique niche with songs like this. Steve's acoustic guitar lead proves that he's not just some crank-it-and-shred-like-a-jigsaw gunslinger and the whole group is constantly aware of the supreme importance of erecting structural melodies inside their art. The track slowly fades away with Morse and Parrish trading head-spinning licks as they disappear over the distant horizon. Delightful.

If not for the applause of the discriminating '78 Montreux Jazz Festival crowd it would be difficult (if not impossible) to discern that the rest of this album was taped live from the stage. Yep, they're that good. "Night of the Living Dregs" has an undeniable Return to Forever vibe running through it and that's okay except that Andy West's solo, despite being a decent enough bassist, makes it crystal clear that he's not in Stanley Clarke's league (few are) and it's a bit of a Dreg drag. Yet I must offer praise for the way the band deftly blends all the different instruments together without a causing a nasty pileup. The group- penned "The Bash" (a variation of the bluegrass staple "The Wabash Cannonball") is next and the audience eats it up like free ice cream. I've always been a sucker for guitarists that can play fast (even though being able to do so is no indication of great skill necessarily) because in my 30+ years of string strummin' I never came even close to being called "Sir Speedy." You either have it or you don't and Morse has it in spades as he demonstrates here. Sloan's violin valiantly tries to keep up with him but Steve blazes a trail constantly while summoning a variety of tones from his axe. You may deem this tune hokey as cornbread dressing but I think it's awesome fun.

"Leprechaun Promenade" is rather schizophrenic. It waffles between soothing, laid back contemporary jazz grooves and sudden onslaughts of sharp, dynamic, edgy riffs that keep you guessing from start to finish. It's a conglomeration of ideas that have no business hanging out with each other but somehow they dance in perfect harmony. Fascinating stuff. "Patchwork" is the closer and if there's such a thing as good 'ol boy southern prog rock this is its anthem. They miraculously manage to draw inspiration from their down home influences without patronizing or glorifying them and the song has so many cool nooks and crannies to gaze into as it flows by there's never a dull moment to be endured. These five men are a frickin' force of nature.

Since all but one of the tunes was written by Steve Morse it's apparent that this is his baby but I never got the impression that he considers himself to be the star of the show. This, in every aspect of the term, is a band effort. Specifically, they're individual masters of their respective instruments who know how to cooperate and present a united front. Needless to say, I'm blown away and now wish I'd seen the light about these Dixie renegades a lot earlier. "Night of the Living Dregs" gets my highest 4-star rating only because I don't know if this is their masterpiece or not but I intend to explore them further and it's not inconceivable that I may come back and add that fifth star in the future. This is exceptional fusion fare, folks.